Tax – for richer or for poorer

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Nobody is going to get married to benefit from a tax break worth £150Heath Robbins/Getty

David Budworth

Last updated at 11:30AM, December 21 2012

Would a cash bung of £150 a year encourage you to get hitched? Of course it
wouldn’t. That is just one of the reasons why the Conservative MPs who have
spent the past few weeks braying for married tax breaks are completely
misguided.

For Tim Loughton, the former Children and Families Minister, voters are
feeling “betrayed” by the failure to introduce the tax breaks for married
couples promised by the Tories at the last election. Under the plan, married
stay-at-home parents could transfer £750 of their tax-free allowance to a
working spouse — an annual £150 tax break.